Post Tagged with: "usa"

Protected Passage

Extorted, followed, threatened, harmed. Facing these frightening realities, many families in Honduras have no choice but to flee their homes and communities in hope they can start anew somewhere far away, somewhere safe. ChildFund supports them on that perilous journey North. Through the Protected Passage program, ChildFund supports refugees and migrants at shelters like the one seen here – and others in Central America – with daily food, diapers, medical equipment, educational and psycho-social support, as well as computers and play equipment. The video above was the centerpiece for a recent (extremely successful) Mother’s Day fundraising gala by ChildFund, which brought over $140,000 for the organization in a single night. Names and exact locations have been withheld from this post for protection purposes.

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Breaking gender barriers in Jordan

My latest video for the Millennium Challenge Corporation, a US international aid agency , tells the story of Ra’eda, who is one of the first female plumbers in Jordan. Here Ra’eda explains how she went from being ridiculed for her chosen profession to becoming an in-demand professional.

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Don’t Forget to Write!

I’ve just completed a series of videos for ChildFund, International on how sponsors and sponsored children interact with each other.  Sponsorship is about much more than sending money each month.  It’s about corresponding and encouraging children in developing countries, as well as learning about those countries and their cultures. This short spot shows how Margaret, from Uganda, and her sponsor’s family in California, keep in touch via snail mail, and how her sponsor’s family shares in the dreams for her future.  Of the three videos I created in the series Margaret’s profile was my favorite, though you can see others here on Youtube. Skeptical about sponsorship? I have to admit that I was too. You might find an article by Christianity Today, and the science behind it, surprising.  It’s written from a faith-based perspective, but the principles laid out here carry over to secular organizations as well.

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Back to the Farm

Get this: 80% of Burkina Faso’s population attempts to make it’s living in subsistence agriculture while only 19% of land is arable.  That makes farming kind of like a guy getting a date in a country where men outnumber women four to one.  Poor soil qualities, fluctuations in rainfall, and topsoil erosion all contribute to the country’s crop production woes.  Recent work is displayed here from the Millennium Challenge Corporation’s agricultural programs in Burkina Faso. MCC, a humanitarian arm of the US State Department, is boosting production and access to markets for small farmers in this West African country, however.  The programs shown here document the organization’s efforts in sustainable agriculture, livestock vaccination, fertilizers, and agro-forestry, as well as ground-breaking, innovative initiatives.  In the Market Information Systems program, agents use cell phone technology to publish regional market prices for a variety of commodities.  Farmers who subscribe to the database can[…]

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